Half-Marathon Training!

My cousin Rach & I had this crazy idea that we should run a Half Marathon. Why not? We did Ragnar SoCal last year and tried to get a family Ragnar together but it didn't work out, so we figured that the two of us should run a 1/2 together! I found the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon which fit the bill perfectly. 30 min. from our home, on a Saturday, and would have us home with our mommas for Mother's Day! My total distance for my 3 Ragnar legs was 14.5 miles, so I've never run 13.1 all at once! I'm nervous & excited. But more excited than anything :)

Whenever I've trained for an event, something has come up. With Ragnar it was a stress fracture on the top of my right foot. With this, it was my gallbladder. Since having it removed, training has been great! Just some minor irritation on one of the incisions that my waistband hits, but it's healing up nicely. I feel strong and sore :)

The training plan I'm doing is from Fitness Magazine and I LOVE it! It's something different every day, so it keeps you guessing and lets your body recover enough. I moved everything over one day so that Sunday and Thursday are my rest days, and my long runs are on Saturday.

I like that you walk miles, run a  few, then walk. It gets you used to being outside for a long period of time and burns fat! Cross training is great, I've been doing yoga & P90X.
Last Saturday I ran 6.5 miles and I hit my halfway point and hit a wall. I immediately got a text from my husband saying, "Go West Cliff!!! You're making great time babe!" He was tracking my phone on the iPad and it was the BEST pick-me-up ever!! Gave me the second wind I needed to finish strong.

I have my longest run yet this Saturday, 8 miles! I'm running 4 and Matt is meeting me with the girls for the last 4. Training with a double stroller makes you feel SO FAST when you run without it! Today I was going into the wind for the first half of my run, and the sunshade acted like a huge parachute catching the wind and pushing against me! When I turned around and had that wind at my back, it was wonderful :)

The Half Marathon is only 3 weeks away...I can't believe it!